


Like the moon, you have me howling

by ZoeMontrose



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Cuddling & Snuggling, Found Family, Happy Ending, M/M, Magical Realism, Mutual Pining, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23365015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeMontrose/pseuds/ZoeMontrose
Summary: How to get yourself adopted into a werewolf pack, by Jamie Benn (a memoir):Step 1: Help a werewolfStep 2: ????Step 3: Adopted.Jamie really doesn’t get the fuss about why werewolves should be seen as dangerous.(Jordie, though, does get why.)
Relationships: Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin
Comments: 46
Kudos: 187
Collections: Bennguin Quarantine Fest 2020





	1. Where-Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written in forever, but now I've suddenly found myself with a lot of free time at my hands, so: Here it is. This is my contribution to the 2020 Bennguin Quarantine Fest. 
> 
> So much thanks to Alyssa, who helped me sort my manic 2am ramblings into a semblance of a fic. 
> 
> Expect pining, expect hilariousity and enjoy!
> 
> Kudos & Comments feed me

“Grande vanilla latte.”

Jamie tugged the glove back up from where it had dropped down during the coffee making to snugly cover his hand and slid the finished coffee over to Ella to hand out.

He discreetly checked the clock above the shop’s entrance. Half an hour, then his shift was over. It was a Tuesday, classes hadn’t started back up yet and the coffee shop was devoid of the usual cluster of stressed students doing some late night studying.

Jamie was glad for it, he tended to avoid huge crowds, if possible. Or rather people, in general.

He waited until the last customer had left to stack up some of the chairs in the back and begin sweeping, waving at Ella when she left. He threw a last cursory glance over the place - machines turned off and cleaned, windows closed, shelves stocked - before locking up, jamming his gloved hands deep into the pockets of his parka.

The clock read 1:13 am and Jamie was tired, yawning and toying around with the keys in his pocket as he hurried to his dorm when he heard it the first time. At first he thought he was imagining it. While picking up sounds from objects only happened occasionally, it was still part of his magic and he’d bought a new key chain just the other day. It would be unusual, but not impossible, if he were getting some sound memory from the little metallic star. It was only the feel of his magic proof gloves against the skin of his palms that reminded him that he was currently warded and it was unlikely he’d pick up sounds from _them_.

Then, suddenly, he heard it again.

A high pitched whine that ended quite abruptly in a pained yelp.

He jerked to a stop on the pavement and strained his ears to see if he’d hear it again, eyes flickering from dim street light to dim street light.

For a second, there was nothing but silence.

Then, very faintly, it picked up again, low and pitiful.

Jamie hesitated.

While the coffee shop was part of the campus, it wasn’t unheard of for creatures from the nearby forest to come wandering into the streets and he wasn’t too keen on a surprise meeting with one of those. Or their claws. Or their fangs. Or their… whatever.

The next whine was barely louder, but it felt ten times more heartbreaking.

Whatever it was, it was hurt and there was nobody around to help. Well, except for him.

Jamie took a deep breath, glanced back at the coffee shop and stepped forward, towards the sound. At least, if he died, they’d find his body very quickly. Work and his dorm were the only two places Jamie frequented, really.

As it turned out, the little sounds came from the little back alley behind the shop, littered in overflowing, smelly dustbins and trashbags.

“Hey, uh, anybody here?” He advanced slowly, backing around the first dustbin.

The whining grew louder, becoming frantic and panicked.

And there, from behind the second dustbin, Jamie could see the tip of a quivering grey tail, twitching helplessly in a shallow puddle that glittered in the night air.

“Oh.” Jamie dropped down into a crouch. Just a dog. “Hey, good boy, hey, it’s okay. Are you hurt, huh?” He made his way around the dustbin, fully prepared for one of the campus’ free roaming dogs and-... Froze.

Lying half hidden behind the smelly dumpster was not a dog, but a wolf. A huge grey wolf, the head the size of Jamie’s chest, glowing orange eyes fixed on Jamie. A werewolf.

Sure, the supernatural community was tight knit, people could count on each other and all that, but werewolves were kind of their own thing. They didn’t take kindly to outsiders, didn’t stray from their packs. They had their own judicial system and strict hierarchies. The main process for dealing with werewolves taught to non-weres was: Leave them _the fuck_ alone.

“Oh shit. Fuck, I’m sorry, I’m just gonna…” He scrambled backwards, scraping his hand along the rough tarmac of the alley.

The whining picked up almost immediately, frantic and pained, and the huge beast pushed itself upwards. Or tried to, anyway. Halfway up, it yelped and fell back, panting with its eyes closed.

It was obviously in pain. And, taking a closer look, Jamie noticed that what he had previously assumed to be a puddle of rainwater was way too dark to actually be just that. It actually looked like…

“Blood. Fuck, uh, you’re really hurt, hey?” Carefully he crept closer on his hands and knees. From there he could see that the beast’s side was drenched in liquid, fur matted down, but he couldn’t get a very good look in the dim light.

“Fuck it,” he muttered, tugging off his right glove and carefully brushing his hand along the quivering flank.

 _FearPainShockPAIN_ slammed into him so heavily he toppled backwards, landing uncomfortably on his butt. The icy cold seeping through his jeans barely registered before he was back at the wolf’s side, tearing off his scarf and pressing it down hard to stop the blood flowing from its wound.

The wolf yelped and jerked sharply, snapping its impressively long fangs very close to Jamie’s hand. Very impressively sharp teeth. Jamie swallowed roughly but kept his hand where it was.

“Shit, shit, okay. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it hurts. Okay, okay. Shit! Here, lemme just...”

He fumbled off his other glove and brought his fingers up back to the wolf. This time, he was prepared for the onslaught of emotions. Forcing himself to focus on pushing through the pain, he reached for the memories attached instead.

He saw the accident, saw the confused and disoriented wolf drag himself away, saw him lying down, separated from the pack, confused and scared, in the alley and waiting, just waiting for hours.

Blindly, Jamie grabbed his phone. His thumb left a bloody streak across the display as he unlocked it, shakily scrolling through his contacts.

Who was he going to call though? Jordie? Jordie would probably freak out worse than he had, so that was out of the question. For all his brother’s toughness, he sure had a healthy respect for werewolves.

He should call campus security or maybe an ambulance or something, but he didn’t even know if they would know how to deal with something like this, either

If only he knew a werewolf, then he could-...

Sucking in a sharp breath, Jamie flipped to the group chat of his General Psychology class and flicked through the members, pausing at a name halfway down the list.

Tyler.

Jamie didn’t _know_ Tyler, but he knew of Tyler, like probably half the campus. Werewolf extraordinaire, with his bright eyes and dimples and abs and his _everything_ , really, strutting around without his shirt at every opportunity like he was allergic to the damn thing.

Not that Jamie was looking, really, but it was kind of hard not to at least notice Tyler.

It rang for what felt like hours before someone picked up, startling Jamie, who had been single mindedly focused on applying pressure to the werewolf’s wound.

“‘llo?”

“Hi, ehm, hi, is this Tyler?”

“Yeah, wait.” There was a rustling sound on the other side, then silence. “Yeah. Who’s this?”

“Uhm, this is Jamie? Jamie Benn? We have, uh, Gen Psych together? Look, I just. There’s like, a were here, and uh, and he’s pretty hurt. So.”

Jamie’s eyes flickered from the scarf covered wound on the werewolf’s side, then up to its furry face, taking in the closed eyes and pulled back chaps showing sharp canines.

“What? Wait, what? Dude, sorry, you just woke me up.”

“There was a car accident, I think. He, uh, he’s bleeding and I found him, uh, behind my work. Uhm, what should I do?”

Jamie heard a hushed _shit_ , then a muffled thud.

“Okay, send me your location, we’ll be right by!”

“You’ll be-... okay. Okay, wait.” Sending the location left another streak of blood behind, Jamie noted dully, heart thumping away in his chest.

“Give us, like, 10 minutes. Shit, and I told him that-...” the call ended abruptly and Jamie dropped the phone, carefully readjusting the scarf.

The werewolf whined softly, moving its massive head until it could, very stiffly, lever it onto Jamie’s thigh.

Jamie froze, heart skipping roughly.

“Okay. Okay, we’re doing that.” Shakily he drew his fingers over the fur of its neck, picking up _painexhaustedreliefsafe_. “It’s going to be alright. They’re on their way.”

It felt like barely any time had passed and at the same time like an eternity had gone by, spent carefully stroking along a silky soft ear, before Jamie heard something from the street.

“We’re back here,” he called without looking up.

Light footsteps approached, accompanied by the light _tap-tap-tap_ of several paws. Jamie didn’t dare take his eyes off the injured werewolf in his lap, just focused instead on the grounding feeling of _safereliefpacksafe_ the werewolf’s whole body seemed to resonate with.

“Shit, okay that looks really bad. Val, man, we were looking everywhere for you!”

A figure crouched down besides Jamie, reaching out to lift one corner of Jamie’s scarf to peek at the wound. It took Jamie’s frozen brain a second to pick apart that it was Tyler, barefoot and without a jacket.

The werewolf - Val, Jamie’s head supplied helpfully - whined softly, lifting his head from Jamie’s lap and licking over Tyler’s finger.

“Yeah, I know. Let’s get you back to the others, Dr. V. is waiting for us.” Jamie watched as Tyler looked over his shoulder and made a forward motion. The other two werewolves - huge beasts, even larger than the injured one - stepped towards them, out of the dim street lights and into the shadows of the alley.

They emerged as two men roughly the same age as Tyler and him, naked but obviously unbothered by the state they were in.

Jamie politely averted his eyes, focusing instead on helping Tyler, who had begun to lift the werewolf’s upper body in order to tie the scarf securely over the wound.

“Okay, and up you go.”

Val yelped and Jamie, who still had his fingers buried in the buttery soft fur of his neck, winced in sympathy when one of the two men almost effortlessly lifted him into his arms, leaving the alley the same silent way they had come in.

The other one stayed behind with Tyler and blinked owlishly at Jamie. Jamie blinked back.

“Damn, that looked nasty. Hey, man, thanks for calling me, yeah? The pack's been looking all over for him. The smell from the trash back here must have covered him up really well.”

Jamie nodded dumbly, dropping his eyes from the naked werewolf back to Tyler. Tyler’s eyes were a really brilliant hazel, maybe a bit greenish if you were to be technical about it. Pretty, nonetheless, framed by thick black lashes.

“Yeah, uh, yeah, no problem,” he said, catching himself from staring and clearing his throat, discreetly slipping his gloves back on. He flexed his fingers that had long grown stiff in the cold night air.

All at once, Tyler jumped back to his feet, startling Jamie into following suit. His legs, which had fallen asleep under the full weight of a werewolf, buckled under him and threatened to let him drop back down.

A hand shot out to steady him and wrapped itself around his wrist like a burning hot iron, catching on the silver of skin above the edge of his glove.

“Woah, hey, steady there. You good?”

“Yeah, I-...” _TiredStressedFlutteryCharmedWorried_ flittered into his head, the stream cutting off abruptly when Tyler snatched his hand back like he had burned himself.

“I should get home. Work is over already,” Jamie finished, nonsensically, slipping his hands back into the pockets of his parka. All at once he noticed just how tired he was, how cold his legs were where the icy puddles had drenched his jeans.

“Are you good to go home alone?”

“Yeah, it’s… it’s not that far. I, uh, I have a shift tomorrow, yeah, I should probably… go.”

Jamie could see, out of the corner of his eyes, how Tyler studied him for a long moment, looking unfairly good in faded skinny jeans and a deep green pullover for someone who had presumably just woken up.

Tyler nodded faintly, almost as if to himself.

“Okay.” He hesitated visibly for a moment, then continued with a soft “Get home safe.” Then he faded back into the shadows of the alley and left Jamie behind, shivering and all the more dazed for it.

Stumbling back home, he must have been more exhausted and drained than he had originally thought because he could have sworn he saw a wolf slink its way through the shadows behind him. When he chanced a glance over his shoulder though, he never really caught a clear sight of anything unusual.

It wouldn’t have been the first time for his magic to go haywire after a stressful day though and conjure up weird images that triggered his paranoia.

Still, he felt like something was watching him, all the way back to his dorm.

After the weird night he had just had, Jamie was all out of fucks to give though, and just made sure to lock the door behind himself.

* * *

The clock had been close to 3am when Jamie had finally fallen into bed that night. Still, he woke up half an hour before his alarm was supposed to go off for his 8am shift, wide awake and panting.

He felt sluggish all morning, hobbling through his little dorm room, absentmindedly feeding and dressing himself. His body felt strangely… disconnected from his mind, a weird ache in his chest keeping him occupied. He rubbed the palm of his hand over his heart, tugging at the shirt that seemed to itch no matter what he tried to do to make it rest comfortably.

The only signs that he didn’t dream up the encounter with the wolf were the watery stains on his jeans and his missing scarf, as well as a single bloody fingerprint on his phone. Still, he discreetly checked the alleyway on the way to work, going so far as to move one of the dumpsters.

Nothing.

Jamie was distracted throughout his entire shift, managing to burn the milk for a cappuccino not once, but twice. When nothing had happened by the end of the 8 hours, however, he allowed himself to relax. Obviously, the thing was done, finished. The werewolves had handled everything and life continued as usual. And that was fine by him, really.

Still, he had to admit that there was some relief mixed in with the heavy portion of shocked surprise he felt when Tyler appeared in front of the coffee shop the second Jamie had clocked out. Jamie's heart gave a weird flutter in his chest and finally, for what felt like the first time all day, settled down.

In contrast to the previous night, Tyler was wearing shoes and a nice, sleek leather jacket, leaning casually against the brick wall next to the doors.

“Hey. How’re you doing, you fancy a coffee?”

Jamie was a little bit proud of himself for managing to raise his brow sardonically and glance back at the shop he had just left. Tyler winced and shrugged his shoulders.

“Fair enough. But you gotta cut a dude some slack, I haven’t had any coffee yet and I didn’t get a lick of sleep last night.”

“I don’t mind. Just worked 8 hours with coffee, one more hour around it won’t kill me,” Jamie replied, taking note of the small uptick in the corner of Tyler’s mouth.

They walked in silence for a couple minutes, Tyler with his hands tucked lazily into his jacket pockets and his obnoxious sunglasses perched on his nose and Jamie fidgeting with a loose thread on his gloves.

After a while, when he just couldn’t take it anymore, Jamie stopped and blurted out: “Uh, not to be rude, or anything but… Can I help you with anything? Like, do you need something from me, cause of yesterday? Like, a witness report?”

Tyler’s gaze was intense as he studied Jamie over the top of his aviators.

“Yeah, I need something. I need you to go drink a coffee with me. Hell, we can be wild and drink a beer, if you wanna. Just… Let me take you out, dude, as a thank you.”

“It was nothing, really, I-...”

“No, dude, it was not nothing. Seriously, let me buy you something. Beer? Tea? Vodka shot? I’ll buy you a damn sparkling unicorn if you want me to, just…”

“Hey, yeah, okay, uh, how about a hot chocolate?”

The intense gaze was back, boring itself straight through Jamie’s own and deep into his soul. It felt kind of… heady, to have that gaze on him, but also like he had to advert his own eyes. Tyler studied him for a breathless eternity, then nodded.

“Sure. Come on, I know a place.”

* * *

‘A Place’ turned out to be a run-down, dingy little diner on the corner off the main campus street with a peeling paint job and half the lettering on the front missing.

“It’s kind of a wolf diner. Like, it’s chill,” Tyler explained, motioning for Jamie to choose one of the empty booths to sit in while he went up front to order.

Jamie picked one next to the window, taking off his parka and tucking his gloved hands into the sleeves of his hoodie. He kind of lost himself in the intricate pattern of oily streaks on the glass of the window, reflecting pretty rainbow shapes onto the table top until Tyler dropped off his hot chocolate in front of him.

“There you go.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled into the rim of his cup, taking a cautious sip and smacking his lips in delight. “Oh wow, this is really good. If it gets out that they serve good stuff here, this place will be overrun by students.”

Tyler laughed, a short, quick hiccup that didn’t really sound joyful at all.

“This is a wolf place, so I doubt that.”

“Oh. Oh, I didn’t mean… I’m sorry, that was…”

“No, hey. It’s fine. It is what it is. Anyway, that wasn’t why I asked you to come. I just. I just wanted to say thank you, for real. Thanks, for helping last night. I mean it.” Tyler looked way too earnest, clutching his latte like his life depended on it.

It was a little strange, how insistent Tyler was, almost nagging Jamie into listening to his gratitude. But what did he know, maybe werewolves had a strict hospitality mentality and he was being the weird one here.

“Hey, it was no big deal. I mean, anybody would have helped.”

“No, dude, don’t you get that? Val spent like, four hours in that ditch trying to get someone to help him and they were all too fucking scared or-... I don’t know, man. It’s fucked up! You’d think we were some kinda… monster, or something. He’s a kid! He’s just, fuck, he’s just 15 and he laid there for _four hours_.”

Tyler tugged his cap off his head and ran his fingers through his already wildly curling hair, tugging on a stray lock. His aviators, which had been perched atop his head, clattered noisily onto the table top but he barely seemed to notice. He was obviously distressed and yeah, the thought made Jamie’s stomach churn, too.

“Hey… For what it’s worth, I really don’t think you are the monster in that equation, then,” Jamie mumbled awkwardly.

Tyler looked up for a second, mouth turning soft in a little half smile.

It looked… it looked really good. What with the curls and the dimples and the smile and the-.... Shit.

“So, uh. How’s, uhm, how’s he doing now? Any other, uh, accidents, recently?” What. Smooth, Benn.

“Uh, no. We’re kinda trying to avoid those for the next two weeks at least.” Tyler smirked and Jamie tried his damn best to hide his growing flush behind his hot chocolate.

“But seriously, he’s okay. Shook up, but we managed to patch him up and he’s recovering,” Tyler added, sobering up.

“Kay, that’s good. Good to know”

They sat in silence for a while, Tyler seemed lost in thoughts and Jamie, who wasn’t the best at holding a conversation on any given day, was quite content to just enjoy his hot chocolate.

“I’m kinda glad it was you, who found him, you know? You seem like a good dude.” Jamie looked up and met Tyler’s gaze incredulously.

“Uh, again, not to be rude, but we hardly know each other. Not that I wouldn’t want to get to know you better, or anything. Uh, unless you like, think that’s awkward. This is awkward, right? Oh, man, stop me at any time here,” he stuttered out, biting on his lower lip before something even more embarrassing could slip out.

Tyler laughed at that, a real laugh that showed all his teeth and scrunched his eyes up attractively in the corners, his hand reaching up to run through his messy hair.

“You know what they say, wolves are the best judges of character!”

“Not… dogs? I thought that was dogs?”

“Hey, are you saying you think a dog is smarter than me?” Jamie brought his almost empty cup back to his mouth and took his sweet time swallowing that last mouthful, doing his best to give Tyler a critical once over.

Tyler’s eyes, it seemed like, were caught somewhere in the region of Jamie’s own throat. Self-consciously Jamie ducked his head down, rubbing his hand along his throat and the back of his neck. Maybe he’d missed some parts while shaving?

Jamie made a vague sound of disbelief and wiggled his fingers.

Tyler, startled from his staring, grumbled good-naturedly and leaned back, slinging one arm along the back of the booth. His hands, Jamie noticed, were unfairly large, with long, slim fingers that toyed coyly with some of the loose leather of the booth.

“You know what, Jamie? I think under all that ‘aw-gosh-don’t-look-at-me’-thing you’ve got going on,” Jamie yelped a protesting _hey_ , but Tyler waved him off and continued, “I think you’re actually a bit of a little shit.”

“Takes one to know one!” Jamie quipped back, startled into how it was so easy to banter back.

Tyler laughed again, that full bodied, belly deep thing that crawled into Jamie’s chest and curled up there into a purring little thing.

“Sure.”

They grinned at each other over the table, Tyler’s chuckle drawing out a small smile on Jamie’s lips. The moment stretched on, Tyler relaxing back again and Jamie tugging one of his gloves straight.

“So,” Tyler started again, drawing out the oh sound. Jamie did his best not to fixate his eyes anywhere near his lips. “What’s up with those, anyway?”

Tyler nodded towards where Jamie was fiddling with his gloves, reaching out across the table before Jamie could react to rub his fingers over his knuckles.

“Wow, this is like, warded leather. These are neat. Are you, like, cursed or something?” Before the words had left Tyler’s mouth fully he already brought his shoulders up in a wince, clever mouth tugged into a grimace. “You don’t have to answer that. Sorry.”

“Oh. Eh, no. No, not cursed.” Jamie tugged the sleeves of his pullover back over his hands and balled them together, bringing them down into his lap.

Tyler’s expression was pinched when he looked back up.

“I’m an Empath. You know, touch magic. It uh, it means I know what people are feeling, if I touch them without my gloves.”

“Bro, that’s so cool? I bet your girlfriend must be so happy? Like, my ex was always going on about how I’m so bad at feelings and shit and just _‘don’t understand what I’m going through, Tyler_.’”

“Uh, no girlfriend, no.”

“Boyfriend?”

“No.” Tyler studied him for a beat.

“Eh, anyway. Man, I’m honestly so jealous right now.”

Jamie, who’d always tried not to engage his powers if he could help it, who had been pushed around and away for knowing _too much_ , couldn’t quite believe Tyler’s reaction. He hesitated, then shrugged and grinned.

“If I focus, I can see memories, too.”

“No way,” Tyler leant across the table, brows drawn low like he was about to tell a secret. “You can totally cheat on your exams with that, right? Like, I’d never study another day in my life, I’d just look at all the memories attached to my pen or something. Holy, this is genius, dude!”

“No, I’m, I’d not, I’m not going to cheat my way to a degree!” Jamie spluttered, swiping out to swat Tyler on the shoulder. Instead of curling his hands back into his lap afterwards, he laid them out flat on the table between them.

“Aw, shucks, right, I forgot who I was talking to. I bet you’re way too much of a good boy, eh?” Tyler teased.

“You’re the dog, between the two of us. Pretty sure that makes you the Good Boy.”

“Hey!”

The rest of their time together seemed to pass by in a blink. They found out that they shared a love for the local sports teams and tattoos, Jamie keeping Tyler from stripping off his clothes to show off his ink. In return, Tyler needled and pushed until Jamie rolled up his sleeves and proudly showed off his own tattoos.

Jamie could not remember ever having felt as comfortable around someone who wasn’t Jordie. He forced himself to swallow down his disappointment when Tyler said that he should get going.

“They’re waiting for me, for dinner, but I wanted to check in on Val before.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Uh, say hello to him, from me?”

“Of course, man.”

They stepped outside together, bundled up in their coats and still grinning at each other.

“So, that was fun, yeah?” Tyler held out his fist and waited patiently for Jamie to bump his own against it.

“Yeah.”

“Sweet! Okay, guess I’ll see you in Gen Psych on Monday?”

Jamie had just turned the corner when he felt a weird tugging in his chest, absentmindedly rubbing his hand over it. Maybe he should cut back on the fatty bacon and pick up running again if his breath was already getting short from a little walk.

The tightness had lessened a bit by the next morning. Still, he picked apart the knots of his sneakers’ laces and rediscovered the little jogging trail through the nearby forest, his footfall a steady drum on the dry winter forest ground.

From time to time he thought he could hear a light _tap-tap-tap_ synchronize with his pace. He was even convinced, sometimes, that he caught something moving in his peripheral vision. But he’d been raised a polite boy and to mind his own business, so he moved his hood over his head and turned up the volume of his music. There were creatures in these forests and they had every right to roam around however they wanted.

He would let them be.

Long as they left him alone, too.


	2. What-Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What I learned while writing this chapter: 
> 
> 1\. I am incapable of writing Jamie and Jordie fight. Thanks so much to Alyssa, my Beta, who took me by the head and lead me like a kindhearted schoolkid leads a blind grandma! 
> 
> 2\. It's very handy to have a native Englishspeaker as a Beta, because your brain chanting "Companions in Trouble" and banging together trashcan tops while you're trying to remember how to actually say it, you're kinda lost. It's "Partners in Crime." Thanks again, Alyssa! 
> 
> 3\. Just Betas, man. Just Betas in general! 
> 
> Enjoy

So he and Tyler were kind of... friends. 

There was nothing strange about it. 

They nodded at each other when they walked past each other on campus, Jamie made sure to save Tyler a seat in their bursting Gen Psych class and, more often than not, Tyler walked with Jamie to work afterwards. 

It seemed to bring Tyler eternal pleasure to loiter around the coffee shop, draping himself over the counter and trying his best to be an annoying little shit. Jamie let him and only put his foot down after Tyler’s fake howling made a customer get up and leave. 

“Please go home, Tyler, you're scaring the customers." 

Tyler glanced around the now empty coffee shop, eyes twinkling with way too much mirth. 

"Aw, Bennie, am I scaring you? Are you scared of this big bad wolf?" 

Jamie had to turn and face the coffee machines to hide his broad grin before doing his best impression of a dead eyed cow stare, voice deadpan and devoid of all emotions. "Yep. I'm terrified. Go home." 

“Aw, Jamie, are you the moon? Cause you’ve got me howling all night long!” 

Jamie was surprisingly good at hitting werewolves with broomsticks, it turned out. 

* * *

Spring was approaching quickly and work was busy. Jamie had almost already forgotten all about Val and the car accident. 

But it wasn’t until late one night, when he came stumbling home from a hard study session that Jamie thought anything had really changed. He barely caught himself from falling over a curled up wolf on the doorstep of his dorm room, dripping water in a little puddle on the dorm’s hallway. 

While Jamie had been vaguely aware of a freshman werewolf living on his floor, he hadn’t ever actually encountered him before. And he hadn’t ever imagined their first meeting to take place at 10 in the evening, with rain pouring down in heaps outside, Jamie consequently drenched from head to toe, and with the wolf trying to make itself as small as possible on his doorstep. 

“Uh.” Jamie stopped in the hallway, staring down at the ball of fur. The ball unrolled just enough to blink its eyes upwards at him, large and orange. 

At the next crack of thunder, it let out the most pathetic of yips and curled back up, quivering and whining. 

Jamie was… strangely charmed. 

“You want to come inside?” He asked, unlocking the door to his dorm and stepping into the room. The wolf slinked in after him, belly low to the ground and ears pinned to his head. 

Another loud crack of thunder rang through the room. 

Jamie closed the door and turned around to put his bag on his desk to find the wolf halfway under his bed, clawing desperately at his carpet to get further under it. Jamie paused, took it in for a second then reached for his phone and snapped a picture to send to Tyler. 

_Help?!_

Almost immediately he got a reply, a row of laughing emojis followed by _That’s Denis, he’s not a huge fan of thunder. Want me to come by?_

_Please!_

Jamie tossed his phone onto his pillow and, stepping over the whining wolf, climbed into his bed. 

“You know, if you want, you can come up on the bed. That might be a bit more comfortable?” He’d barely finished the sentence before he found himself with a lap full of pathetically sniffling wolf, trying to curl himself into a lap-sized ball of quivering misery. 

“That’s not what I… okay. Fine. Whatever. Netflix?” Jamie wasn’t really sure yet how sentient werewolves were like this, but he made sure to ask the wolf’s - Denis’ - opinion on his choice of movie anyway. 

That was how Tyler found them, half an hour later, Denis spilling out of his lap at all sides, and the first of the Mighty Ducks movies running. 

At least Denis had stopped trying to bury his snout under Jamie’s thigh after every clap of thunder. Or rather, he had stopped after Jamie had started running his fingers up and down between his ears.

“Wow, Denis. You had me fooled, I thought you a werewolf for years. Turns out you’re just a scaredy cat.” 

Denis snapped his jaw half heartedly at Tyler and Jamie tapped him gently on the forehead. 

“No biting in my room.” 

Tyler snickered, chucking off his shoes and climbing onto the bed to wedge himself between Jamie and the wall. 

“Oh hey, is that Mighty Ducks? Man, I haven’t seen those in ages. Budge up, Denis, share a little.” 

Jamie’s little dorm bed seriously hadn’t been made with two large men and a huge wolf in mind and the mattress sagged inwards a little, smushing Tyler flush against his side. Not that either of the werewolves seemed to mind, one stretching out his legs and the other tugging the laptop closer towards him. 

Jamie blushed, his skin feeling electric where Tyler was pressed to him, tightly enough that not a single sheet of paper would have fit between them. He allowed himself, after a second of hesitation, to lean his head against his shoulder. He held his breath and only relaxed once Tyler shifted, leaning into the touch and pressing his cheek against Jamie’s hair.

“Man, check out their clothes. These movies are ancient, bro, but so good.” Jamie hummed contendly, absentmindedly rubbing his fingers along Denis’ ear. 

He was comfortably toasty, blanketed in soft fur and leaned against Tyler. His eyes, which were already sore after hours staring at a laptop screen, surrendered their fight and fell shut somewhere around Ducksworth making his deal with Reilly to keep Banks. 

He woke up sometime into the night to Tyler ushering Denis out in a hushed voice. 

“Ty?,” he slurred lowly, pushing himself up on his elbow. At some point he must have moved down the bed to lie down. His eyes slipped back shut almost immediately, lids heavy with sleep. 

“Jamie, hey. Did we wake you? We’re just on our way out.” 

“Hm.” He thought he felt something soft brush along his cheek, but between one breath and the next he was already fast asleep again. 

The next morning, he found himself snug under his blanket even though he could have sworn he had fallen asleep on the other end of the bed. The restrictive buttons on his gloves had even been popped open, but the gloves themselves had not been removed. 

He didn’t get to dwell on that for very long, though, because one glance at his clock told him that he was very close to running late for his shift. 

Amidst the panic of trying to find his work uniform, rushing to work, and the fluttering in his chest, Jamie paused for a moment, coming to a realization. He hadn’t actually ever told Tyler where his dorm room was. And while he didn’t live on a huge campus, Tyler would’ve had to make a very, very lucky guess to get to Jamie’s room on the first try. 

When Jamie texted Tyler about it, on his break later in the day, all he received was a vague explanation that Denis must have mentioned it. 

It seemed a little strange to Jamie, sure, but what _wasn’t_ strange about his new canine friends?

* * *

Denis started hanging out in his dorm ridiculously often, curled up on the rug next to Jamie’s heater. It was… surprisingly nice, to come back to his dorm and have someone there, even if Tyler told him that Denis did it to get out of having to do his homework. 

“No opposable thumbs,” he whispered like a secret during one of their, now regular, movie sessions. 

Jamie didn’t really understand what it was about him that made Denis be as comfortable around him as he was, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. 

And that was the crux of this all, wasn’t it? That he didn’t mind, not really. Rather, it started to feel… nice. Nice to be needed and trusted and relied on.

Being around wolves didn’t require any talking, different vocal cords and all that, so Jamie didn’t have to fear stomping his way through conversation. It was… nice. It was really nice. Denis would just flop down on his rug and whine and Jamie could just answer back with an empathic nod that meant _I feel you_ . Also, sometimes when Jamie was feeling anxious, when his magic was overpowering and clouding his senses and he just _didn’t know anymore what he was feeling_ , Denis would push himself into his space and allow Jamie to grip his fur tightly until the feeling subsided. 

And, of course, with Denis came the additional benefit of Tyler coming over, curling himself around Denis and tugging on his ears or play wrestling the much larger wolf. That was, until they knocked down and broke Jamie’s bedside lamp. Wrestling was consequently banned to the hallway. 

So, that was nice, too. 

“I don’t understand why you guys don’t interact with people outside of your packs.” Jamie shifted on the bed where he was trying to get his homework done to get into a more comfortable position, shifting Denis who laid sprawled out on his lap. “I mean, look at this one. Denis is basically an overgrown lag dog. There’s really nothing that scary about you guys.”

Denis’ back paw twitched and Jamie scratched over the spot he had just patted again. The paw twitched more violently, then kicked out. 

Tyler stopped twirling around in Jamie’s desk chair, where he had been trying to catch peanuts out of the air with his mouth. 

“Well, you know, it’s more of a safety measure for us. A precaution. Can’t get hunted down by people with pitchforks if you don’t talk to ‘em.” He threw another nut and caught it expertly between his teeth, showing Jamie with an impish grin. 

“Gross. It’s the 21st century though, are people really still that crazy? Anyone hunt you with a pitchfork lately?” 

“Well, if I remember correctly, I got chased around a coffee shop with a broomstick, just the other day.”

“Oh yeah. And you got hit by a heavy book, too!”

“Huh? I don’t remember-... Hey!” Tyler toppled backwards to the ground, the desk chair swinging around merrily, to lie sprawled out on the floor, Jamie’s book clutched to his chest. It startled a laugh out of both of them, though Tyler did refuse to hand the book back over. 

Tyler, sure was… something. He was loud and boisterous and whiny, pushing and tugging Jamie around to come join them on the floor for a nap, or whining about being hungry until Jamie was forced to stock up his fridge only to empty it again in one sitting. He was tactile and obnoxious and everything Jamie had thought would bother him, but strangely just… didn’t. 

“That’s because I’m the best.”

“Yeah. You are a Good Boy, the best boy.” 

“Hell yeah I am, I-... wait. Hey! You little shit! Come back here.” 

“You’re my bestest boy, Tyler. Aren’t you? Who’s a Good Boy, who’s my-.. Woah, ah!” 

Getting smacked in the face by a pillow and subsequently buried under two werewolves was a small price to pay. 

And, even more strangely, Tyler and Denis didn’t seem to be the only werewolves who behaved overly familiar and comfortable with him. 

A werewolf in his clinical seminar sidled up next to Jamie to ask for his notes, another waved at him when he passed him by on a run. Yet another became a regular in the coffee shop, but refused to order from anyone other than Jamie.

And lastly, a particularly brash one, in his wolf form, had started joining him for his jogs.

It started with the wolf running parallel to Jamie in the forest, keeping out of Jamie’s way. Then, eventually, the tawny wolf strayed across the path to run a few paces behind him. Finally, after a few weeks, Jamie offered the panting wolf some of his water, which seemed to be the permission he had been waiting for. From that point on, the wolf began zigzagging across the trail, brushing against Jamie’s legs and attempting to trip him up by weaseling its way between his legs or bumping into him from behind.

When Jamie turned to scold him, the golden markings on his face twisted up into what looked like a mischievous smile. 

Through it all, Jamie sometimes still felt the weird ache in his chest, but between finals coming near and work getting busier, he didn’t have the time to go to a check up. 

Besides, he only felt it on occasion.

* * *

  
  
  
  
  


It didn’t become a problem until Jordie started to involve himself. Or rather, until Jordie got involved, against his will. 

Barely a day passed by that Jordie didn’t check in with him, but after graduation and with Jordie’s steady job, they hadn’t really managed to meet up all that often anymore. 

So it was nice that they managed to get together for some late dinner at the Denny’s off campus, sharing a booth and mixing up their food. Jamie made an effort to order something healthy, but Jordie pretended to be full and pushed half of his eggs and bacon on Jamie’s plate anyway. Eventually, Jamie gave in and ordered a thick milkshake for them to share. 

Jamie never really got used to Jordie not being around all day, every day, and he missed him terribly. 

Recently though, it hadn’t been that bad without him. Sure, they texted and sometimes Jamie still missed being able to crawl into Jordie’s bed after a bad day, but now he more often than not had Tyler or Denis there to fill in the gaps Jordie left behind. While they didn’t replace the bond of a brother, they did make him feel so much less lonely. 

Still, Jamie omitted that little detail about his life during dinner, teasing and poking Jordie into telling him about the girl he met and listening to him complain about work, instead. It felt good and he was happy and maybe he shouldn’t have been too surprised at the universe deciding to push a thick branch through the spikes of his metaphorical bike. 

They’d each taken off one of their respective gloves and tangled the fingers of their left hands, basking in the lazy feedback loop of _contenthappyfamilylove_. 

“And I thought living together with you was bad, Jame, but man, those people? Absolutely no concept of personal hygiene! You’d believe that-... Holy Fuck! Get down, Jamie!” 

Jamie couldn’t even react before Jordie had him in a headlock, pushing him down. _PanicFearSurvival_ sparked through their bond in an electric shockwave, underlined by a heavy thumping of _ProtectProtectProtect_. 

His own heart spiked in fear and he struggled free, surprisingly easily, from Jordie’s frozen grip, twisting and turning to get a look at what had freaked out his brother. 

There was a wolf cowering in the doorway of the restaurant, looming well over the hostess stand and looking for all the world like he knew he didn’t belong there. Of course.

“Something like this just has to happen in a fucking Denny’s, doesn’t it,” Jamie groaned softly and thunked his head against the greasy table top. Of course it would be a wolf. A high pitched scream alerted him that the waitress had also noticed their new guest, but the wolf wasn’t dissuaded, creeping belly down towards their table with its tail between its legs. 

“Okay. Okay, I’m gonna distract it, okay, and you’re gonna run! Are you listening to me, Jamie? I want you to run and-...” 

“It’s bleeding!” Jamie pushed himself out of the booth, towards the wolf that had planted itself fully into the middle of the restaurant. The floor behind the wolf was streaked with red, leading to where it was obviously favoring its right front paw. Jamie watched as the wolf slumped down, ears flattened, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. 

“Hey buddy, are you hurt?” Jamie asked, lowering himself down next to the wolf. 

“Jamie!” 

Jamie ignored the shout from behind and crouched down further to get a good look at the left paw. Besides some blood matted into his fur, he couldn't see any obvious wounds from above, but the blood still glistening on the ugly linoleum told him something else. 

“Okay,” he sighed, sitting back on his heels. “I have an emergency kit in my trunk, let’s take a look at that, huh?” Jamie pulled some cash from his pocket and placed it on their table, then coaxed the wolf into following him out, past the perplexed waitress plastered to the opposite wall and into the parking lot.

Somewhere behind him, he could hear Jordie spluttering furiously. “Jamie Benn!” His brother rounded the wolf with some healthy distance, coming to stand behind him and putting a heavy hand on his shoulder. 

Jamie shrugged it off, clicked open the trunk of his car and rummaged around for his emergency kit. He found it buried under a stack of newspapers and what looked suspiciously like a takeout bag so old it had grown its own biotope. He’d have to remember to toss that one away. 

“Just… Jordie, just, trust me here, okay?” He said and turned to the wolf that was waiting patiently on the pavement, blue eyes a stark contrast to the almost white fur. “And I need you guys,” he made an empathic gesture towards the forest, “to stop coming to me for these things. Don’t you have a doctor? An… I don’t know, a vet?” 

The werewolf growled deeply in the back of his throat, a sound that passed over into a wide yawn at Jamie’s unimpressed look. 

“Jamie! Get the hell away from that, I mean it!”

“I’m just trying to help it!” 

“And I’m trying to protect you! I can’t believe you-.. Are you petting it?” 

“Well it’s hurt and probably scared!” Jamie again ran the gloved fingertips of his right hand along the wolf’s head, encouraging it to lie down on its side and let him take a look at the underside of its paw.

"You stepped into something there, huh, buddy?” He searched through his first aid kit for some gloves and gauze, carefully dabbing around the wound he could see bleeding freely. 

The werewolf protested loudly but Jamie had learned his lesson about the bark and bite of wolves and continued to clean the wound as well as he could, gently tugging free a large shard of glass. Pressing some gauze to the wound he tied it off with a bandage, gently petting along the wolf’s side. 

“There we go. Should be good enough until you get home. Make sure to have that checked out though, okay?” 

The wolf lifted its massive head and, before Jamie could duck, dragged its long tongue over the side of his face. He could have sworn that it was grinning. 

“Thanks for that, bud,” Jamie grumbled, making a big show out of wiping his sleeve over the side of his face. The wolf scrambled up, carefully putting some weight on his front paws and seemingly deemed it good enough. 

With one last glare into Jordie’s general direction, the wolf took off down the street and into the trees bordering the parking lot. 

Jamie, feeling Jordie’s eyes boring into the back of his neck, deliberately took his time stowing away the first aid kit, tucking it back under the magazines and closing the trunk. Then he turned, crossed his arms and tilted his head down. 

“What.” 

“What… The actual fuck, kid?” Jordie advanced on him like the mother hen in disguise he truly was and checked him over, going so far as to lift his arms to check under there, too. 

“Darth, you were there, you saw that the wolf didn’t do anything.” Because he was uncomfortable and because he was, maybe, also a little bit scared about what was to come, Jamie wasted some time tugging on his missing glove, flexing his fingers in their strict confinement. 

“What _was_ that?” 

Jamie shrugged, tugging his fingers under his arms. 

“It happens sometimes. That wolf just needed help from someone with opposable thumbs.” He said and winced almost at the same time at his too fast mouth, squinting up at Jordie through his lashes. Maybe Tyler’s attitude was maybe rubbing off on him more than he had thought. 

“You know that those things kill people, right?” Jordie yelled, gesticulating wildly towards where the wolf had vanished. The explosion of Jordie’s temper had Jamie backing away into the car, bumping into the closed trunk. “Just last month, you heard about the hiker two towns over? Torn to fucking shreds! Or the missing kids in New York? They are huge beasts with fangs and claws! Hell, they are no better than goddamn Wendigos!” 

The anger Jamie felt was so sudden, his hands jerked forward on their own accord, not knowing where to direct it at. The wolf, for coming in unannounced and forcing him to have this conversation with Jordie against his will? Or Jordie, who just-... who just 

“Oh my God, Jordie! Those are fucking stereotypes and they are hurtful! Did that wolf look like it was going to hurt me, even remotely? Maybe have your fucking eyes checked.”

Jordie’s face turned a worrisome shade of red, eyes twinkling with fury. Jamie knew that he had crossed a line but he felt more like snapping the crayon instead of going back and redrawing it. 

“So what? I’m supposed to stand by and watch my baby brother become, I don’t know, the local guardian angel for the resident werewolves? How far is this gonna go? Until you’re no longer useful to them and I find you mauled in a ditch?” The words rang deep in Jamie, but he closed himself off to them, hunching down and pressing his lips into a tight, white line. 

They stared at each other, breathing hard. 

“I’m not your baby brother anymore, Darth. I can watch out for myself.” 

It was almost painful to watch how Jordie deflated, shoulders which had been drawn up in fierce protection lowering like gates, leaving him soft and defenseless. 

“Fine,” he whispered, voice breaking. He cleared his throat, took a step back and Jamie felt cold. “Fine. Get yourself mauled then, for all I care.” 

Jordie was in the driver’s seat of his car before Jamie found his voice, cut into silence by the same knife he had just used on his brother, it seemed. 

His brother was long gone by the time Jamie unfroze, turning around and yelling an empathic _fuck_ while kicking violently at his tire. It wasn’t satisfying, instead it hurt fiercely, though the ache was unparalleled by what was going on in his chest. 

“Fuck!” He screamed again, sliding backwards down along the door of his car until he sat, curled up, on the unforgiving asphalt of the parking lot. He fished for his keys in his pocket but when he finally got a grip of them his hands were shaking so badly he could hardly see himself drive. At this rate he’d really find himself in a ditch. 

His laugh was a little on the hysterical side and he had to sink his teeth into his lower lip to keep the following sob at bay. No need to valide Jordie’s panic, really. 

He needed someone to pick him up. His phone was just as hard to free out of his pockets, and once he was holding it he had no idea who to call. His brother, his usual confidant and partner in crime was out of the question. That… left exactly no one. 

Well, that wasn’t exactly true anymore, was it? Tyler had been… good to be around, lately. When he was near, Jamie just felt… lighter, somehow. Like a weight had been lifted from his chest. Really, it all came back to Tyler these days, didn’t it? Jamie pretermitted that thought quite happily, instead focussing on typing out a message to him. 

_Can you come pick me up?_ He added his location and dropped his phone into his lap. 

_Aren’t u with Jordie?_ Tyler replied with a speed that had Jamie wonder if he had been sitting by his phone, waiting, or something. 

_Don’t want to talk about it._

_OMW to a party, u wanna come?_

Jamie really wasn’t one for parties, but between partying and being alone with his thoughts, partying won out. Plus, he’d get to be there with Tyler, at least. 

_Sure._

Tyler picked him up by the diner. He had the good grace not to mention anything about the situation, just pulled off the curb and started driving. Maybe those werewolf senses were good for something besides sniffing out where Jamie hid his emergency chocolate. 

Out of the corner of his eyes Jamie could see Tyler wrinkle his nose, then lower down the driver’s side window. 

“What, I showered this morning! Why are you wrinkling your nose like that?” Jamie knew all about werewolf senses and their incredible sensitivity to smell after having to listen to more than one rant about the apparently appalling smell of the college gym. He’d made sure to shower extra thoroughly ever since. 

“Nah, man. Everything is fine, just neat-o.” Jamie mouthed the word _neat-o_ to himself, then slumped his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Just, I like your new cologne. Haven’t smelled that one before. It’s just a bit much, is all.” 

“I refuse to believe that you’ve lived your entire life without anyone ever telling you that you can’t just say stuff like this to non-weres,” Jamie murmured, lolling his head to the side to watch Tyler drive. Tyler drove the same way he seemed to handle most things in his life: Fast, a little bit hectic, almost over-confident yet focused. It was a tiny bit overwhelming, so Jamie looked back out of the window instead. 

“It’s a compliment.”

“It’s not a compliment, it’s weird.” 

“Your face is weird!” 

“Oh yeah? Well at least I don’t smell Denis’ crotch on the regular!” 

“Woah yeah, what flea crawled up your ass and died? I was just being nice.” 

“Well.. stop being nice, then.” They fell silent, Jamie crabby and Tyler obviously weirded out, if Jamie could trust the way he kept glancing over at him while obviously trying not to look like he was checking up on him. 

“Okay, let’s just have fun, yeah? Cut loose a little, dance, do some kegs.” 

“I’m not gonna dance,” Jame grumbled mulishly, if only to be contrary. 

“We’ll see about that,” Tyler said, and took a left turn so sharply Jamie banged his head against the car’s roof. 

The gleeful little smirk on Tyler’s lips betrayed his oh-woe-be-me-innocent look and the only thing keeping Jamie from smacking him upside the head was that he generally preferred arriving at his parties alive. 

* * *

  
  
  


The place was packed when they arrived, drunk students littering the front lawn, bass thumping from the opened windows to allow in some of the late spring air. They entered together, Tyler pushing his way through the throng of people and forcing Jamie to stick close if he didn’t want to get lost. 

“Shit, it’s full. Here, like this,” Tyler yelled over the music, reaching out and slipping his fingers into the spaces between Jamie’s. They fit really well, Jamie thought, swallowing against the sudden dryness in his mouth. 

He needed to get drunk. For more than one reason, it seemed. 

Tyler tugged him into the kitchen where he produced two red cups sloshing with… something. Jamie was just on the right side of emotionally drained to not care, downing the contents and emptying the cup in one, two, three, four large gulps, then refilled it. 

“Hey, slow down there, Tiger. Don’t wanna have to drag your puking ass home at midnight ‘cause you can’t hold your liquor. That’s, like, the depressing version of Cinderella.” 

Sometimes Jamie wondered what thought processes exactly happened in Tyler’s head. 

They wandered from the kitchen to the adjourning rooms where Tyler met some friends, greeting them loud and boisterous. Werewolves, if the pointedly open space between the little group and the rest of the partygoers was any indication. 

Two blonde girls inserted themselves into the free spaces under Tyler’s arms, greeting him with firm hugs. Something dark curdled in Jamie’s stomach, twisting and turning it into an ugly little thing. He took a pointed sip of his cup, awkwardly loitering at the edge of the circle. 

“Jamie, come meet the inferior Seguins,” Tyler called, the two girls sharing a look and grinning impishly up at him while digging their pointy elbows into Tyler’s sternum. “Ouch, hey, my momma taught me not to lie,” he said with a broad smile, the one that showed all of his teeth and made the ugly thing in Jamie’s chest relax and uncurl into a tamed purring housecat. 

He was maybe getting a little bit overboard with his metaphors. 

Jamie blushed. 

Tyler’s sisters, it became evident, were extremely good at beer pong and took an astounding amount of glee in absolutely destroying the other wolves, including Tyler, who waved off after his third straight loss. Instead, he came to join Jamie leaning against the wall, mellow and content to sip his drink and watch. 

In the silent space between them, their fingertips tangled again. Without the excuse of a crowd they were left to smile at each other, soft and just a little bit shy. The moment stretched, Tyler’s eyes flickering to somewhere around his mouth and for a second, Jamie thought he was going to-... 

A ranchious laugh made them both jump and they grinned at each other, Jamie gripping Tyler’s hand more firmly. 

The other werewolves continued playing, two drawing Jamie into a heated debate about outdoor pond hockey that escalated into a wrestling match between the two wolves. 

Jamie laughed, his fingers squeezing around Tyler’s. 

Maybe the evening could still turn out well. 

  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  


It eventually grew hot inside, stifling and sweaty, crawling down Jamie’s throat into his lungs until he choked on it. They spilled out of the house and into the lawn, Tyler draped halfway around his side and whining about being hungry. 

Jamie felt… good. Surprisingly good, almost elated. Maybe he should have been suspicious about feeling so good after fighting with Jordie, maybe he should have seen it coming. 

As it turned out, not _seeing_ it coming was his downfall. 

One of the werewolves - Tyler had introduced him as Brownie, if Jamie wasn’t mistaken - bemoaned his lack of alcohol, and Jamie, slightly drunk and way more outgoing than was probably healthy for him, offered to get a new round from the kitchen. Several of the other wolves piped up at that. 

Jamie, focused on remembering what had been ordered - and what even was in a _Sand in the Crack_ \- turned towards the house. And ran smack dab into the back of some man standing behind him, spilling the contents of his cup on him. 

“Oh. Shit, man, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you… there.” Jamie stuttered to a stop, red cup crinkling in his hand from the sudden force of his grip. 

“Fucking! Watch it, fuck!” Robert shoved him backwards, the crumpled up cup falling to the ground between them. “Oh. You!” 

Jamie felt frozen, muscles locked up. Somehow, he managed to put his head down, hunching his shoulders up and trying to just move on, push past, get away. His heart was doing somersaults in his chest, cramping and beating out of rhythm. 

He felt sick. 

“Yeah, Jamie, you better fucking go!” Robert was obviously drunk, stumbling when he shoved his body directly into Jamie’s way. His breath reeked. “No one wants you here, you fucking freak. People like their fucking _privacy_.” He laughed meanly. Behind them, Tyler called his name, voice low and worried. 

“Please, Rob, just-...” 

“What am I feeling now, huh, freak?” Robert jabbed his finger into Jamie’s chest, pushing him back another step. Jamie stumbled, fingers flexing in his gloves. He had the strong urge to tuck his hands away, to fold them up into his body and hide. 

“That’s not-.. You know that’s not how…” 

“Jamie?” An anchoring hand landed on his shoulder, drawing him back to the place where he felt safest. Tyler. And huh, when had that happened? “Hey, man, cool it, yeah? It was an accident, shit happens.” 

Tyler moved himself in front of Jamie, the other werewolves perking up and watching from the sideline. The dark haired one, Brownie, inched closer, pressing himself against Jamie’s side in a supportive line of heat. 

“An accident? Yeah, man, that freak is a fucking accident of magic! And you, get the fuck away from me, you fucked up beast!” Rob snapped, eyes slanted into mean slits. 

Jamie flinched, moving to just go, go, go, but the sound of a low, menacing growl had him freezing. Where before Tyler had been standing was now, perched low among the scraps of his clothes and with his chaps drawn up in a threatening snarl, a tawny wolf with familiar markings around the eyes. 

Brownie’s muscles locked up tight where he was still pressed to Jamie’s side, coiled like a spring ready to snap. Behind them, more growling joined Tyler’s. 

Robert visibly blanched, stumbling backwards. The heel of his shoe got caught on something and he fell, landing square on his backside. Some tiny part of Jamie that was still fucked up about their messy breakup rejoiced viciously in his chest when he landed roughly on the ground. 

“Shit, shit, shit, don’t eat me!” His voice was comically high pitched, yet something in Jamie’s chest tightened, Jordie’s words bouncing around in his head. 

“Tyler! Stop!” The wolf’s… _Tyler’s_ eyes flickered to him, but the deep growling sound did not stop. If anything, it grew, drool gathering on the tips of his fangs. “Tyler!” 

Robert scrambled backwards, whimpering, and seemed to have lost all coordination about his body, limbs flailing out to all sides. If Jamie weren’t so overwhelmed and frustrated, he would have thought it to be funny. Finally he found his footing, jumping up and all but racing up the ranch steps. 

Tyler lept after him, one, two, three giant jumps and snapped his jaw right at his heels. Robert screamed, lost his footing again and smacked into the splintering wood of the veranda. From there he crawled the last bit, slamming the door with a resounding _THUMP._

The yard around them was vacant, several faces pressing themselves to the windows of the frat and staring at them, pale and ghostlike. Jamie felt a shiver run down his spine. 

Tyler turned from where he still stood perched at the bottom of the steps, wagging his tail cautiously. 

“What. Was that,” Brownie asked. 

Jamie opened his mouth, then closed it again and shook his head. He couldn’t do this, not tonight. Really not tonight. 

“I just. I gotta go,” he murmured, shaky hands fumbling his phone from his pockets. He could call Jordie, except he wasn’t sure if Jordie would respond. And what would he say, anyway? He had a feeling that _Hey, my werewolf buddy, who I’m sure is more than a buddy to me, just attacked someone at a party, can you come pick me up?_ wasn’t going to cut it. 

His throat closed up, eyes burning. 

“Jamie?” Jamie hadn’t known Tyler’s voice could sound that soft, cautious and afraid all at once. 

Jamie stopped, twisted his head just enough to see Tyler, scrambling to put on a jacket. His toes fit his fingers, Jamie thought wildly, long and fine, yet strong. He caught himself, exhaled deeply and turned back around. 

“I can’t do this tonight, Tyler. I’m. I need to get home, okay?” 

“I was just trying to help!” 

“You confirmed every stereotype these idiots had about you, that’s what you did!” Suddenly angry, Jamie whirled around. And stuttered to a stop, coming face to face with Tyler, so close Tyler’s erratic breathing fanned across his cheek. 

“I was just trying to help,” he repeated, voice helpless and soft. His eyes were large. Jamie couldn’t remember, for a second, why he had ever believed them to be hazel when really they were so many different things, flecks of gold around the dark green rings, coffee webbed in between clouds of deep chocolate. 

Jamie clenched his jaw, hard, tearing his gaze away and looking for something to focus them on behind Tyler’s shoulder. Instead, they landed on the remaining werewolves, obviously eavesdropping and reflecting both aggression and concern. 

For him. 

Local guardian angel for the werewolves, wasn’t that what Jordie had said? Things that had appeared strange to him for weeks now started coming together in his head. The unfamiliar werewolves that cozied up to him, came to him for help like Denis or the wolf today. Or Tyler’s bizarre insistence about thanking him, Tyler knowing where his dorm room was without Jamie ever having told him, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler who had come into Jamie’s life like a stray cat he had accidentally fed once and that now refused to leave. 

Maybe he was starting to connect dots in places where he long since should have seen a full picture. 

“What is going on, Tyler? Why… Why are you like… this? All of you!” Tyler tilted his head, mouth opening, obviously looking to find the sense in Jamie’s words. “Why are you protecting me?” 

Tyler’s eyes flicked to the side, hands grappling with the jackets that was still denying him the cooperation he wanted. 

“It’s just, you know.. Just a werewolf thing.” He was so obviously lying Jamie scoffed aloud. A true testament to how done he felt with this entire situation. 

“No, it’s not!” 

“Jamie-..” Tyler reached out, fruitlessly trying to draw Jamie in with a hand on his wrist. 

“It’s weird, Tyler,” Jamie burst out, ducking away from Tyler’s touch and crossing his arms in front of his chest, hunching his shoulders. “It’s just-... You guys, you usually stick to your packs. And all of a sudden I’m like, I don’t know, the fucking werewolf whisperer? It’s weird, I didn’t sign up for this. Is this some kind of joke I’m not in on?” 

Tyler dropped his hand to hang limply at his side, emotions flickering over his face too quickly for Jamie to analyse. 

“You don’t get it, do you? Goddamn Jamie, you really don’t get it. You _are_ pack.” 

Jamie laughed, shrill and panicked. 

“Pack? Tyler, just because we’re friends doesn’t automatically make me pack. I know I’m not the, the smartest out there, but don’t try to take me for an idiot!” 

His chest _ached_. Fierce and unwavering. Jamie gasped, clutching his hand over his heart and staggering back a step as if physically struck. Tyler’s eyes zeroed in on his movement, something like triumph glinting in his eyes. 

“Yeah, you’ve been feeling that, lately, huh? The emptiness when you are away from the pack. How good it feels to be around other wolves, how freeing?” His voice was loud, but not malicious, hands reaching out again. Jamie barely felt it when they connected with his shoulder. “That’s the bond, Jame,” he continued, softer. 

“How long have you known?” His breath left him in a loud whoosh, hand falling to his side. He felt like he was going to freak out. Freak out or cry. 

“I wasn’t sure before, I swear! I thought-... But, man, nothing like this ever happened before!” The worst thing was, Tyler sounded so excited, face bright and open as if he expected Jamie to-, to celebrate with him or something. 

“Shit, shit what are we gonna do?”

“Do?” His smile flickered, brows drawing together. Jamie ran his trembling hand through his hair, if only to have something to hold on to “Like, undo?” 

“Yeah!” Tyler flinched, like Jamie had just punched him in the stomach, face twisting into a wounded grimace.

“I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m not qualified to deal with this. I’m just. I can’t.”

This time, when Jamie carefully removed himself from Tyler’s grip and turned to leave, no one stopped him. 

He walked and walked and walked, muscle memory picking up. He’d written Jordie before the thought even really registered, just his location and a short _Please pick me up I need you_. 

He couldn’t be pack. That was impossible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like always, Kudos & Comments keep me fed :) 
> 
> Tell me what you think and how you think it will continue

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr 
> 
> [Come yell at me at my Tumblr](https://instant-typo.tumblr.com/)


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